Hello Justice Rowing Families:  Happy Spring Break! This week marks the third regatta of our season, the Walter Mess Regatta. PLEASE READ THIS EMAIL THOROUGHLY.

Week Behind — Regional Park Regatta

We had another great weekend of races at the Regional Park Regatta. With six boats racing in three different events, nearly everyone got to race!

• The Men’s Single (Charlie Hess) finished close behind the Men’s Doubles, which is impressive given the differences in expected speed between the boat classes.
• The Men’s Junior Quad (Sam Schneider, Tucker Trissell, David Caudillo, Stephen Blackadar) placed 1st (out of 4) with a time of 5:59.5.
• The Men’s Senior Quad (Nick Kish, Victor Smith, Roman Richey, Josiah Nowlin) placed 4th in the same race as a mostly novice crew in a senior race.
• The Women’s Senior Quad (Anna Lyons, Sabrina Ehmann-Jones, Gretchen Hardy, Indigo Brooke-Weiss) placed 1st (out of 4) with a time of 6:55.0.
• The Women’s Junior Quad (Chloé Bernasconi, Gretchen Hardy, Silvia Smith, Ashley Forrest) placed 2nd in the same race, only about a length behind the Justice Senior quad.
• The Women’s Senior 2nd Quad (Caroline Allison, Ella Stavlund, Juliet Sage, Lorelei Friel, Mary Kenzi) placed 3rd in the same race, also being a mostly novice crew in a Senior race, making a Justice sweep of the top three finishes.

While the weather was definitely below expectations, rowing in the cold and wet weather is part of rowing. And getting cold and wet at the finish line waiting for the races to come down the course is part of being a rowing parent (just like struggling with a launch motor in the cold wet weather is part of being a rowing coach).

Week Ahead — Walter Mess Regatta

With Spring Break this week, it’s a great chance to get a lot of rowing in! With the normal loss of a few rowers due to other commitments, we’ll likely have a smaller fleet out at the Walter Mess Regatta next weekend.

Coach Nate
Head Coach
Justice Rowing

Friday Night Pasta Dinner, 7-9:  The Trissells are hosts of this Friday’s Pasta Dinner. Please show up directly after practice and leave promptly by 9:00 to prepare for a big day of racing! The location is in the weekly email. We have one empty slot to fill for upcoming dinners — please sign up if you can host.

Regatta Food Table: We provide food for our rowers on Saturdays, and many sign up slots remain open. Please go to the sign up genius page where you can sign up for any/all of our regattas in one place.  Don’t worry about getting it down to Sandy Run – we can coordinate with early volunteers to get it down there for you; just send an email to this address if you need help.

Regatta Schedules:Find the heat/race schedule at vasra.org on Thursday/Friday. Rowers should be at Sandy Run NO LATER THAN TWO HOURS before their race. Rowers may be dropped off at Sandy Run, but there is no parking at Sandy Run for spectators. Rowers driving themselves may park at Sandy Run, but should carpool with their teammates if possible (optimizes parking and minimizes the chances of rowers being late). CARPOOLING IS HIGHLY ENCOURAGED (by team/boat, if possible).

Spectator Parking: ALL spectators must park off-site and take a shuttle bus to Sandy Run. The shuttle bus costs $15 round trip. Once the shuttle bus drops you off it is about another 15-20 walk to the grandstands for viewing. You may also pay a separate $5 each way for a shuttle from the drop-off point in Lot C to the Grandstand/Finish Line area. Offsite parking is at South County High School, 8501 Silverbrook Rd, Lorton, VA 22079. MORE INFORMATION IS at VASRA.ORG.

VASRA Volunteers:  If you are signed up for a VASRA volunteer job (you know who you are) then you may park free at Sandy Run. Tell the parking monitors when you arrive that you are a volunteer and for what job and they will direct you to the appropriate parking lot.

SPRING BREAK CARPOOL: Thanks to everyone who’s signed up to help out with the carpool over Spring Break. JHS does not have school on the following Monday and Tuesday following Spring Break, so we are extending our carpool for those two days, and additional spots have been added to the SignUp Genius. Please sign up and help out today! If you sign up to drive, please complete/sign the driver form and email it to BDGarvey@fcps.edu.